Casse - My experience & your ideas

[Ksifos]

Hello.
I 've started a campaign as Briton (Casse) since I like the fact they start on an island and after conquering it you have a lot of options.Settings are VH/VH.

Start is not easy you have to make certain moves in order to get things going - otherwise you are easily destroyed :-P
Conquered England and Ireland, playing slowly since I was developing tech and economy simultaneously.The next move was that little town in Belgium, Bratosporios.This is our homeland's part so it was imperative to get there first before the power-hungry german king.

I was allied with both the Gaul nations and the Romans.Things were quite for some time, when war came between Aedui and Arverni.Now I had to choose who to support.Aedui were the aggressors and this was a reason to go with Arverni.But it seems I didnt know the whole story and I was soon about to find out.

Sweboz were not happy of our presence near their borders.Numerous times, german spies and assasins were cought and hanged as traitors.Still they were allied to Arverni and Romani so in a sense we were "friends".But when the german king got access to the top tech barracks he immediately launched an attack.At that very moment both Arverni and Romani broke their alliances with us!

It was quite a war.I brought my experienced army from Britain and crushed german "mostly Jugundai" armies some times.They lost Begacos, Cawjam Habukoz and Cawjam Heruskoz.I was about to push them even more when a half stack of Romani with two generals, one 9 stars and 3 gold chevrons (lol), besieged Bratosporios.It was mostly local mercenaries so I thought that fresh some recruits and a small force from Camulosadae would suffice.I was proved wrong :-)

I knew Romani isnt a force to ignore.I had to be extra careful because my whole european small expendition was at stake.I immediately send my best diplomat to the carthagenians and grabbed an alliance.The same thing I did with Aedui - a bitter moment when I went against them.Now they were pretty exhausted as Romani had systematicallly pushed them north, capturing their towns and eliminating their armies.

On the east front Sweboz was building NUMBERS! And attack, besieged, got repelled and attacked again.He just couldnt stop.Plus he was expanding towards Scandinavia.Somehow his economy was running pretty strong.I had to block the bridges and in two moments of glory I destroyed two FULL german stacks with spearmen and heavy swordsmen, about one third of their army in total.This has bring some peace for the time being.

Being lucky Aedui was now hassling the Romani so they couldnt reach my towns, or did with difficulty.Then a half stack with a general comes again.But this time it was mostly Romani, like Principes, Samnicati and those dreaded Triarii.I had to fight them so I did.Near there was a freshly retrained full stack with a family member in charge.Attacked having the feeling of a glorious win.I was proven WRONG! Those triarii held the third of my army while his general was smashing my units one by one.They just wouldn't break.It was a disaster :-)

Anyway I had my lessons learned so now I need heavier infantry to hold the line, enough slingers and of course to always keep numbers superiority so that the odds are balanced.

Learned so far:
- Britons are morale dependent so general and "inspiring eagle" units are essential
- They have high mobility and when combined with their "spear throwing" ability you have some tactical advantages to exploit
- Slingers can turn the odds in your favor.They are deadly shooting at the back of the enemy and excellent "generals" shooters
- Chariots scare most of the enemies.ONLY enemy that wasn't scared was Triarii...! So they must remain alive at all cost.Despite having a nice charge bonus in my game is not proved.So I always having them as "fear-generators" running around the battlefield.
- Britons are not so good town defenders, as most Barbarian nations I guess.So is better to fight outside the town.

Remains to be seen how they will fare against high-tech romani and what tactics necessary should be deployed.Just got access to Calawre (Champions from reformed level 4 MIC) and looking forward to deploy them against Samnitici :-)

Problem would come against cavalry armies.Maybe I need to spam more Gaeroas but are recruited ONLY in Britain.

What are your experience with Casse either playing with or against them?

Any comment or your story are welcome :-)

[vollorix]

As i´ve stated several times elsewhere, the first thing i do with Casse is to secure Bratosporus, and Bagacos afterwards, or at least, after it becomes a large town. As Geticus allready has said, that trade "triangle" between your initial Capital and those two Belgian towns is a great money maker. It also gives you an excellent opportunity to develop those towns after your gusto, beeing able to recruit Belgian troops for the mainland expeditons.
Concerning the units, i rather look at Casse as Belgians then "Britons". Therefore i rely on Belgian core troops, using the rest as support.
- I never build extra chariots, those of the FM are more then enough, imo
- If you need "heavy" line troops, use Milnaht - that´s all you need to kick those Roman a****
- The only mid tier "British" unit that might deserve attention are the "midland spearmen"; the reason is quite simple - 55 javelin range ( 47.5 for Batacori, but amo advantage instead: 3 volleys for the Belgian spearmen )
- Always let your FM finish the "Ynis Mon" training, this will keep your casualities acceptable
- Use the "trick" with the "immortal" units - the first one suffering casualities will regenerate almost completly, the second quit well too; send you best/important troops to engage first
- I use BI.exe, that´s why i "abuse" the shieldwall of the Belgian troops a lot ( mostly in the town fights ); a Milaht unit put in a shieldwall formation is almost impossible to rout without heavy charges and/or massive missile attack from behind ( Batacori will, though )
- I´ve found the "Irish" missile/light cavalry to be quite usefull and cost effective
- Since you have no ability to build paved roads etc. you might want your celtic brothers to get the job done before you invade Gaul.
- German settlements are not on your win condition list, actually, so why bothering with them at all? Let them come, decimate them from the distance, tire them out and then finish the job with couple of nice "charges" with your chariots ( btw: once charge, keep them moving, simply riding through the enemy unit; especially those with high armour and dencer formation are vulnerable )
- allways kill a German warlord - use slingers for that purpose ( soften them up, then maybe charge with a fresh "high lethality" unit - Recalve are goood - elite vs. elite )
- To fight Romans efficiently, you need to keep your core units away from their deadly pila, plus you allways need a couple of fresh "high lethality" units combined with a good timed cavalry charge, to make them rout ( agains Recalve are quite nice for this, Druids too, especially since you mostly need them to "chant", instead of doing any real fighting till the end; and as Casse you got access to the best Celtic cavalry - Remis - that´s when the early grabbing of Bratosporus makes itself pay )
- Casse got a unit with "ap" javelines from Irland - you can use them in your armies to shredder the pesky Triari who mostly simply refuse to break, but a couple of those volleys in their backs will do the job for sure!
- The Celtic reforms seems not so important to me, so build up a couple of troops mass production settlements ( you Capital, Bratosporus ), and develop the rest focused on economy.
-

[Ksifos]

Hey Vollorix :-)

Yes I was thinking of expanding in Belgium but thought that this could bring problems with fellow Gauls and Germans (it did).But very early game you are right that this is a more ,economically speaking, beneficial approach, accelerating other strategic moves as well.

You speak of some tricks I didn't know (like immortal units) and others I dont understand yet like Ynis mon training - Ynis Mon is a town in Wales.

For spearmen I didnt know the exact details (I dont look at game files) but Belgica spearmen have great charge bonus too ;-)
Overall my armies are based on Minhat which are a very reliable unit, becoming even more reliable when having a command unit nearby.
Casse are heroic people and are based on charges.That is their biggest advantage in battle, in contrast with other nations for example, pikemen
armies where you are waiting to be attacked.

You are right about roads (too bad I grabbed some averni towns too early) but for german towns and especially the Baltic ones, I was going for the nice trade routes, being town-ports.It serves two purposes, weakening sweboz financially while boosting your economy.And it is worth the effort.Sweboz must have the Belgium in their script, that means an eternal enemy.So IMO it is good to get them out of the game asap.

For AP I use Isoltae who seldom fail me.Advantages are many:

- extreme mobility to the point of having a similar use to missile cavalry
- AoR
- BIG stock of ammo
- decent AP damage
- good defensive units too (aka bridges)
- cooperate well with chariots in skirmishing together

At the moment I have neutralized Sweboz since they are forced to keep big garrisons in towns due to low public order(spies do miracles :-P) even though we talk of core provinces which is strange.Another strange thing is I have almost 20 (or more) rounds this sweboz full stack in my territory (Swebotraustastamnoz) led by a FM of theirs and he doesnt get rationing traits! Is that normal?

Alliance with Carthage paid off.They have reached the outskirts of Rome and Romani were desperately seeking for a peace which I agreed for.Aedui are now again fielding a decent army and pushing Arverni, so I have all my resources available to plot against Sweboz ;-)

Just got access to level 5 MIC of Casse and those mighty elite units.I had a fight with one unit of Rycalawre and one Kluddargos against 5 units of eleytheroi in mainland.This served as a test of their efficiecy before deployed in main field.Conclusions:

- Rycalawre with their superb defence took half losses in contrast to Kluddargos
- Kluddargos had approx. a double score in enemy kills
- Kluddargos are extremely sensitive to javelin (pila) damage but can handle melee fights quite good
- Rycalawre are extremely resistive unit - were fighting 3 rebels unit and holding with ease

* both units have great designs (irrelevant :-P)

Overall a very interesting campaign!

[vollorix]

Once you own Ynis Mon settlement simply put a FM inside and he´ll start a "druidic" training. After a short period of time ( 2 years max. ) they become, depending on intelligence and other characteristics, very nice traits which will help you with casualities recovering. And since it is the highest level ( druidic ) academy responsible for that training, your FMs will also use the time to gather some usefull ancillaries. The only drawback can be the "scolastic" trait triggered if some of your FMs tend to be way too bookish, but the "vigorous" ones should make up for it through the "hail and hearty" trait anyway ( and the more langurous ones might be better suited for managing your rich trade routes ).

Concerning unit stats: a while ago i was eager to understand how the battle statistics work, and so i actually know the EDU quite by heart... it helps to use the units properly, but the EB unit list should be enough too.

[Ksifos]

I am on northern Iberia grabbed a city from Lusos and Romani immediately declared war on me.Almost close to end the game around 210BC.
Me being on war has great effect of the other nations'progress.For example Romani (in Polyvian reforms) had repelled Carthage together with Lusos who took all Iberia.When I entered the war against Romani, immediately Carthage attacked on the Peninsula.That's some nice moves from the allied AI.

I am really enjoying the Brits, still I expected a lot more action against the Romani.And it's sad I have to "consume" Aedui who have been good and loyal allies since round 1 :-\

[TheLastDays]

Well that's just how it goes, you don't found an empire by timidly avoiding to step on other peoples' toes ;)

I enjoy playing the Casse a lot, they have a great roster, good starting position and the enemies can be pretty varied, depending on how the map develops, you always fight Celts and Germans, but then the Romani, Lusos, sometimes Carthies and Getai make things more interesting.